Big Picture - November/December 2017 - 28

INTERIOR DÉCOR & TEXTILES

BIG PICTURE

November/December 2017

W

28

hile walking the show floor at Heimtextil
international trade fair for home and contact
fabric, Annemijn Filius was inspired by all the
gorgeous patterns on display. To her dismay, many of the
designers presenting work at the show were thrown for a loop
when she inquired about reproducing them on textiles. This left
her with the desire to find a way for beautiful designs to be
made available to consumers on demand and on a variety of
substrates. She wondered: How can designers make their work
accessible to the average consumer? Knowing the ever-growing
trend in customization and personalized products, Filius decided
there had to be a way to bridge the gap between designers and
customers. The solution? Motiflow.
For Motiflow (motiflow.nl), Filius' print-on-demand
company out of the Netherlands, the possibilities are truly
endless. Motiflow brings together designers, wide-format
printing, and end users in a seamless process allowing for
customization, community, and creativity. The concept is
simple: Designers make an account and upload their work;
customers place orders by picking their favorite patterns and
choosing what substrate to print on; and sister company
Probo (probo.nl) outputs the order using their HP Latex 570
and Durst Alpha Series printers. Designers retain the copy-

right to their patterns, and end users receive personalized
wallcoverings, gift wrap, and fabric without leaving the
comfort of their homes.
Since its launch in September 2016, Motiflow's community
has grown to include 300 public designers and thousands of
patterns, ranging from dancing lobsters to ice cream, floral
prints, and coffeepots. Consumers can choose to print onto
fabric (cotton basic, cotton satin, poly outdoor, or jersey),
wallpaper, or gift wrap. From there, customers ranging from
DIYers to designers to wholesale companies let their creativity
flow freely. "The most common applications for customers, if
you look at fabric, are clothing and interior décor," explains
Filius. "But nothing's the same; it's a wide variation of
products. And that's where our customers' creativity shows.
One customer even made herself a wedding dress from our
printed fabric."
At Motiflow, sustainability and printing on-demand go
hand in hand. Fabric is sourced from European companies
with proven environmental credentials, while wallpaper and
gift-wrap media are FSC-certified. Probo prints all orders with
GOTS-certified, nontoxic inks. "Being eco-friendly is important for us, but also for the customers we sell to," says Filius in
a release. "They demand high quality output with a strong
environmental pedigree."
What's next? Partnering with brands that can offer even
more products to end users: Think curtains, cushions, and
clothing. As Filius puts it: "How would the world look if you
could print any pattern, on-demand, on any product? It's a
whole new world full of endless possibilities, which we are
going to discover."

P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y S T U D I O B A B S I E . W A L L PA P E R D E S I G N ( T W I G S , T O P ) B Y I S A B E L L A . F A B R I C D E S I G N ( S C I S S O R S , B O T T O M ) B Y S A S K I AY D A .

GO WITH THE FLOW
http://www.motiflow.nl http://www.probo.nl
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Big Picture - November/December 2017
